Toyota Research Institute
Senior VR Teleop Software Engineer, Large Behavior Models
Be an Early Applicant
The VR Teleop Engineer will architect and develop immersive teleoperation systems for humanoid robots, optimizing performance and collaborating with cross-functional teams.
At Toyota Research Institute (TRI), we’re on a mission to improve the quality of human life. We’re developing new tools and capabilities to amplify the human experience. To lead this transformative shift in mobility, we’ve built a world-class team in Automated Driving, Energy & Materials, Human-Centered AI, Human Interactive Driving, Large Behavior Models, and Robotics.
The Mission
Make general-purpose robots a reality.
The Challenge
We envision a future where robots assist with household chores and cooking, aid the older population in maintaining their independence, and enable people to spend more time on the activities they enjoy most. To achieve this, robots need to be able to operate reliably in messy, unstructured environments. Our mission is to answer the question “What will it take to create truly general-purpose robots that can accomplish a wide variety of tasks in settings like human homes with minimal human supervision?”. We believe that the answer lies in cultivating large-scale datasets of physical interaction from a variety of sources and building on the latest advances in machine learning to learn general-purpose robot behaviors from this data.
Robotics
The mission of TRI Robotics is to invent and prove new robotic capabilities required to enable home robots to solve the challenges faced by an aging society. As part of that mission, we are developing a sophisticated suite of open source robotics software called Drake (https://drake.mit.edu (https://drake.mit.edu/)), for use in our internal robotics projects and the wider community of advanced robotics researchers.
The Team
Join Toyota Research Institute’s LBM-C division to change the world by creating and shipping useful general-purpose AI-driven robots. Be responsible for the software vision end-to-end and turn ground breaking R&D into deployed products.
The Opportunity
We're looking for a VR Teleop Engineer to enable intuitive, immersive VR teleoperation for dexterous humanoid robots, turning live camera and sensor feeds into low-latency, natural control interfaces. You’ll own the end-to-end user-facing pipeline that lets remote operators leverage our robots’ full physical capabilities.
Responsibilities
- Own the Teleop Stack: Architect the full teleoperation pipeline: ingest live camera + sensor streams, fuse 3D data, render in VR, and relay user commands back to the robot.
- Develop Immersive Experiences: Build VR/XR systems that deliver high situational awareness and intuitive control with minimal fatigue.
- Optimize Performance & Robustness: Optimize networking and processing to eliminate lag, preserve visual fidelity, and harden against bandwidth variability.
- Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner with hardware, AI, and deployment teams, iterate on user-feedback, and ship production-grade teleoperation systems.
Qualifications
- VR Teleop Expertise: 5+ years shipping VR or XR applications, particularly those ingesting and rendering live camera or sensor streams in a headset.
- Real-Time Data Pipelines: Experience building real-time pipelines that fuse camera, depth, and pose.
- UI/UX Design: Craft intuitive control schemes (controllers, hand-tracking, gestures) and in-VR UIs for teleoperation.
- Strong Implementation: Proven track record building efficient, reusable low-level systems for performance-critical VR teleoperation components.
- Collaborative Approach: Passion for robotics and ability to work closely with hardware and software teams to deliver high-quality user experiences.
Bonus Qualifications
- Cloud-Streaming Architectures: Experience building interactive cloud applications with Apache Kafka or similar event-streaming platforms.
- Haptics & Spatial Audio: Familiarity with integrating haptic feedback systems and spatial audio to improve immersion
The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $162,000 and $243,000/year for Massachusetts-based roles. Base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including, but not limited to, business or organizational needs, market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Note that TRI offers a generous benefits package (including 401(k) eligibility and various paid time off benefits, such as vacation, sick time, and parental leave) and an annual cash bonus structure. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.
Please reference this Candidate Privacy Notice to inform you of the categories of personal information that we collect from individuals who inquire about and/or apply to work for Toyota Research Institute, Inc. or its subsidiaries, including Toyota A.I. Ventures GP, L.P., and the purposes for which we use such personal information.
TRI is fueled by a diverse and inclusive community of people with unique backgrounds, education and life experiences. We are dedicated to fostering an innovative and collaborative environment by living the values that are an essential part of our culture. We believe diversity makes us stronger and are proud to provide Equal Employment Opportunity for all, without regard to an applicant’s race, color, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, religion, marital status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state or local laws.
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment.
Top Skills
Apache Kafka
Haptic Feedback
Live Camera Streaming
Sensor Data
Spatial Audio
Vr
Xr
Toyota Research Institute Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Office
One Kendall Square, Building 600, Suite 6-501, Cambridge, MA, United States, 02139
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